LD
Dallas,#2General Comment
Sat, January 05, 2013
I remember a few years ago I needed someone to do my taxes and went to this professional tax company who did my taxes for around $150.00. I was making quite a bit of money at the time and did not need to haggle over doing them myself. It was a standard 1040 Form. Single no exemptions. No itemizations.
Well, fast forward to this past year and I had to do an amendment on two tax years. I had left off a deduction. I called around to all the major tax preparer companies and they were all around $600 to $800 dollars. Just to do the amendments meaning add the credit into my tax form.
I said no way. That is nothing but a ripoff. I had never done my taxes before and was petrified of doing my own taxes. But I called the IRS and ordered the forms and read through the little booklet. The IRS will assist with basic questions but they won't go line item by line item especially if you have tax returns that include a lot of itemizations and tax sheltering, etc.
My tax forms were pretty simple to do. I finished both in about 30 minutes and mailed them off. Everything checked out with them so apparently I did them correctly. I will never pay the exhorbitant fees these companies are charging to do the taxes. Tax companies use to be reasonable but what they do now is play on the stupidity of the public by saying they will take their fees directly out of the refund and that way most people who are getting several thousand don't care but $1,200 is a LOT or even $1,000 is a LOT regardless of how much money you are getting.
People need to learn how to do their own taxes so they won't be railroaded.
Last, this tax company is one I would run away from. If they are marketing that aggressively it smells of desperation and that is not good.